A MAN who owned a collection of indecent images of children so big it needed a seven and a half tonne lorry to take it away has been jailed for a year.

Joseph Faul, 48, of Beaulieu Place, Ealing was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court last week. He was arrested after UK Border Agency staff working at Coventry International Parcel Hub intercepted a number of film spools showing images of children and bestiality.

On August 27 2010, officers from the agency’s Criminal and Financial Investigation team searched Faul’s two-bedroom flat. Inside they found tens of thousands of items of pornography, plus computers and other equipment used to make and copy DVDs.

It is believed to be one of the single biggest ever hauls of extreme pornography in the UK.

Faul was arrested by UK Border Agency officers, who then alerted officers from the Metropolitan Police Service Abusive and Extreme Images Unit.

His flat contained so much material that it took a seven and a half tonne lorry to remove it for examination.

Following a joint investigation by the police and UKBA, Faul was charged with importing and possessing extreme pornographic material and indecent images of children.

During a court hearing in December, he admitted 19 different charges including the making and possession of indecent images of children, and the possession of extreme pornography. A further two charges relating to the importation of obscene material were left on file.

A judge at Isleworth Crown Court sentenced him last Friday (February 3) and placed him on the sex offenders register for ten years.

Deputy director Jim Jarvie, from the UKBA’s Criminal and Financial Investigation team, said: “This is without doubt the biggest seizure of its kind that we have been involved in.

“Faul was in possession of almost every type of extreme pornography. When our officers raided his flat they found obscene material hidden in every single room. It took a seven and a half tonne lorry to take it all away.

“As this case shows our officers work around the clock at ports and airports – and behind the scenes at postal sorting offices – to keep indecent material and other illegal items likes drugs, counterfeit goods and firearms out of the UK.”